BACKGROUND CHECKS, PEOPLE. Background checks.

HGTV announced this week they'd pulled the plug on a reality show originally scheduled to air this coming fall, because they'd decided that the hosts' DILF-ish charms were more than canceled out by their rank bigotry. Flip It Forward would have starred David and Jason Benham, a pair of strapping twin realtors from Charlotte, N.C., as they helped local families "find the right place, fix it up, and flip it" to make some money.

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Earlier this week, the website Right Wing Watch published an extensive compilation of David Benham's anti-gay, anti-abortion, and anti-Muslim rhetoric. (Homosexuality, abortion, and Islam are all "demonic forces," he said in 2012.) His past activism included protesting abortion clinics, which he calls "the gates of hell" in a video, and championing North Carolina's Amendment 1, which passed in 2012 defining both same-sex marriages and civil unions as unconstitutional.

Oh, and also the Benhams' father, Skip, is the director of abortion clinic protest group Operation Save America. As Right Wing Watch posted on its site, in his role, Skip has "condemned the interfaith Sandy Hook memorial, protested in front of mosques while shouting 'Jesus hates Muslims,' and blamed the Aurora shooting on the Democratic Party, which he said promotes a 'culture of death.' He has also protested LGBT pride events, interrupted church services during a sermon by 'sodomite Episcopalian bishop' Gene Robinson, and was found guilty of stalking a Charlotte abortion doctor after passing out hundreds of 'wanted' posters with the physician's name and photo on it."

After Right Wing Watch's post gained traction, HGTV announced a "review" of the Benhams and their background. The network quickly followed this "review" up with a tweet confirming the decision "not to move forward" with the series (some filming had already taken place). The Benhams then responded with a statement of their own, lamenting the discrimination they were feeling, and I'll leave you to consider a word that rhymes with "pie-rony" in this context, because we could all use some calming pie-themed thoughts at this point if nothing else:

"We were saddened to hear HGTV's decision. With all of the grotesque things that can be seen and heard on television today you would think there would be room for two twin brothers who are faithful to our families, committed to biblical principles, and dedicated professionals. If our faith costs us a television show then so be it."

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In interviews since, they've further pursued the "wounded Christian warriors" angle. David Benham told Deadline he feels that HGTV "was bullied" and that "a smear campaign" was led against them and their principles. And in an interview on CNN last night, he said, "I love homosexuals. I love Islam, Muslims, and my brother and I would never discriminate ... Never have I ever spoken against homosexuals, as individuals, and gone against them. I speak about an agenda. And that's really what the point of this is — is that there is an agenda that is seeking to silence the voices of men and women of faith."

As a brief aside because I'm just ~*so*~ gay I can't help myself, I cannot with people who are hell-bent on trampling others' rights having a hissy fit when they feel their own are even theoretically at risk. People like David Benham are so rigidly heterosexual that they probably only own ugly man shoes, and guess what, ugly shoes suck when worn on the other foot. They suck on both feet actually! But I digress.

In the same CNN interview, Jason Benham claimed that HGTV had met with him and his brother last year, and that after discussions that presumably included their sociopolitical beliefs, producers told them, "They saw there is no hate in us." This is hardly a ringing endorsement, but still: There was obviously some seriously poor vetting going on. Few mainstream networks would want to be associated with all the bigoted bullshit listed above, and especially not in a feel-good, hopey, changey, "Look, aren't these all-American bros and their do-good attitude just lovely?"context. It's bad for business.

The Benhams' beliefs, now gone viral, would be a huge turn-off for what's now a large and arguably mainstream audience. HGTV executives can't come out and say this, but even if you want to play the whole First Amendment game — see last year's Duck Dynasty debacle — a network must weigh their potential TV stars' freedom of speech up against their potential viewers' freedom to change the channel, and it's the latter that wins out. To be clear, that means no one's stopping the Benhams from doing their thing, however awful that thing is. They just don't get a schmaltzy national TV platform to do so, because they and their hatred don't deserve it.